Right People Right Job

Business Strategy Made Practical My purpose here is not to lecture anyone about strategy. Besides not being qualified to do so, I’d like to understand a key issue: How does your strategy translate into work? i.e. how does each person understand their contribution to the organisation’s ability to achieve its strategy? If the strategy plays well only at a senior level, the strategy is unlikely to be adopted by the people who must deliver the work required to achieve the strategy. The simple answer is that the strategy should be cascaded (where appropriate) to each person’s job. Their role in the organisation’s success should be reflected in their KPIs. They should be measured on their contribution to the achievement of the strategy. But this is often easier said than done. First, the direct link between the work done by most of your staff and the strategy of the organisation may not be clear to them. Second, the way we define and measure an objective at a strategic level is not the same at job level. For example, an organisation might have an objective in their strategy to improve customer service. That objective could be measured through client surveys. For the score to improve, there may be a number of ways for the staff to make an impact. A packer in a warehouse can make sure that the parcels he has to pack are packed properly. A service agent will see that he returns customers’ calls quickly. Another service agent may take care that the clients’ experience of the ‘faulty goods return’ process is pain-free. All of these people play a part in the improvement of the organisation’s customer service score. What if each of those staff has no idea of their contribution to the achievement of the strategy? If the warehouse packers and service agents are not aware, not competent or not motivated to work in such a way, the organisation will struggle to meet its service objectives.